In some businesses, it is beneficial for a company to employ a dispersed workforce. The dispersed work force allows the company to hire qualified candidates around the country, or even the world. Additionally, a dispersed workforce allows a company to save money on office space and supplies because the company's employees will be able to work from their home. Further advantages include reductions in costs associated with office supplies, equipment, furniture, phones and phone lines, etc. Employees also prefer such an arrangement because it provides savings in gas and/or transit costs to and from work as well as the time in commuting.
A dispersed workforce arrangement is particularly suited for companies offering phone-in customer service. In this industry, it is often unnecessary to require employees to work from 15 an office because the employees can provide customer support from their home. In these situations, employees simply log on to the company's network to access the information and the resources necessary to aid customers. However, in a dispersed workforce, employers lose the ability to monitor employees to make sure that they are actually working. Additionally, employers have no way of ensuring that their employees are not retaining confidential customer information, such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc. Finally, because the employees are logging in to the company network using their own computers, the company network becomes susceptible to any viruses or spy ware located on the employee's computer.
In an effort to avoid these problems, companies have provided remote employees with computers to use specifically for work purposes. Providing each employee with their own computer can be very costly, and it is often difficult for the company to retrieve the computer when an employee leaves the company. Furthermore, the companies have no way of ensuring that their employees only use the provided computer for work purposes or ensure that their employees are not retaining or misusing confidential customer information. Thus, providing computers specifically for work purposes does not solve these problems.
It is with respect to this general environment that embodiments of the present invention have been contemplated.